St. John’s, Antigua (13 June 2010) --- More than 60 travel professionals at the recently-concluded Cruise3Sixty Conference and Trade Show, a CLIA event held June 2-6 in Vancouver, were part of a Destination Workshop conducted on behalf of Antigua and Barbuda.
The sold out presentation was popular with agents who signed up weeks prior to the event June 5. It featured Power Point presentations by Erica Henry-Jackman of the Toronto Tourism office and Avonelle Pole of the Antigua Pier Group. A branded destination package, which included the Antiguan magazine, a destination brochure and DVD, the Pier Group’s Seatrade Cruise Supplement, and the Antigua and Barbuda Paradise Map and Tourist Guide were handed out along with a questionnaire to each agent attending the workshop. While the emphasis was on the many tours, attractions and beaches the island has to offer, much time was spent on educating travel agents about the quality and variety of hotels, resorts and convenient airlift. Antigua and Barbuda was also positioned as the place for a honeymoon or the ease of getting married. One lucky travel agent won a lovely pearl necklace and earring set donated by Abbott’s Jewellery and 15 agents will be selected at a later date for a familiarization trip to lean more about the range of accommodations, wealth of attractions, cuisine, culture, lifestyle and how to sell the island’s romantic vacation opportunities and non-stop activities.
“One of the things I have learned from attending these shows is that Antigua and Barbuda has great name recognition,” says Marketing Consultant Avonelle Pole. “75% of the primarily agents who stopped by our booth, had something to relate about Antigua, whether they came on a vacation, attended a wedding, came on a cruise or made a booking for a client. It was a positive and an encouraging sign that people know who we are.”
The show attracted more than 1,400 registered travel-selling professionals, 302 show exhibitor booths and 44 sponsors – all record-breaking numbers. The nonprofit Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) is North America's largest cruise industry organization. CLIA represents the interests of 25 member cruise lines, and participates in the regulatory and policy development process while supporting measures that foster a safe, secure and healthy cruise ship environment. CLIA is also engaged in travel professional training, research and marketing communications to promote the value and desirability of cruise vacations and counts as members, 16,000 travel selling professionals.
Reflecting the growing importance of Canada’s cruise market, Canadian agents accounted for 46% of Cruise3Sixty attendees this year, with American participation evenly distributed between eastern and western regions of the U.S. Among international participants there were 25 delegates from Australia as well as from Brazil, India, Turkey and other countries around the world, another strong indication of the globalization of the industry. In its sixth year, this was the first time cruise3sixty was held outside of Fort Lauderdale, where the association is headquartered. American Express was Cruise3Sixty’s Presenting Sponsor, joined by Tourism Vancouver, Port Metro Vancouver, Vancouver International Airport, Super, Natural British Columbia and a host of other sponsors, including Amadeus and Sabre Travel Network.
“Cruise3Sixty has grown bigger and better each year, and we were delighted by the exceptionally strong response to holding it in the magnificent city of Vancouver,” said Terry L. Dale, CLIA’s President and CEO. “In addition to our many loyal travel agent partners from the United States, the strong showing by agents from Canada and other parts of the world are an indication of how important international business and the globalization of cruise operations are for the industry going forward.”
The conference opened with a welcome reception for all delegates at the Vancouver Aquarium complete with a dolphin show. The first general session got underway with the “A View from the Bridge” and a panel discussion about what the industry learned from the recession that can be applied to the future.
Acknowledging the important role of travel agents, Dan Hanrahan, Celebrity’s President, noted “a lesson we’re not likely to forget is that we’re lucky to have good partners at a time when you can’t do things alone.” The executives were unanimous in citing value as the industry’s strongest sales message. “No other holiday can deliver the value that cruising does,” said Peter Shanks, Cunard’s President and Managing Director. Stein Kruse, of Holland America, said he was struck by the irony that in 1982 cruise prices were higher than they are now while today’s product is “vastly superior.” The panelists were later joined by Jo Kling, President of Landry & Kling, and Claire Bennett, senior VP at American Express, who joined a discussion of strategies for attracting first time cruisers as well as ways to encourage young people to become travel agents.
The latter topic was echoed later in the conference in a panel discussion entitled “Developing and Mentoring the Travel Agent of Tomorrow” in which the agent panelists agreed that the term “travel agent” may be outdated and stressed the importance of focusing on the professionalism, training and experience of today’s cruise sellers. The value of mentoring, including reverse-mentoring (young mentoring more experienced professionals) and the frequent need to mentor clients, was a common theme in this and other panel discussions at Cruise3Sixty. This was particularly true among panelists taking on the topic “Does Gender Affect Decision Making and Leadership?” All eight male and female executives from the industry cited the importance of a highly valued mentor in their success.
Other panel discussions included “The Small Ship Experience Delivers Big Rewards” and “Redefining Luxury in a New Economy.” “Do You Need to be More Social?” was a panel discussion which investigated the uses of social networking and proved to be exceptionally popular among travel agent participants.
In a Cruise3Sixty keynote address that was as entertaining as it was inspiring, adventurer and business executive Alison Levine, who only three days previously had returned from leading a successful ascent of Mt. Everest by American women, told delegates “fear is okay, complacency is what will kill you.” Applying what she has learned in mountain climbing, she advised agents to “take prudent risks” and, when a task seems impossible, to “break it down into smaller parts,” much as she and her team of climbers had to do when every step on Everest required ten deep breaths of oxygen.
Throughout the course of the conference, agents participated in 15 CLIA seminars to earn up to 135 credits toward CLIA Certification as well as workshops, destination briefings, and cruise line product demonstrations and booking demo’s. CLIA training seminars taught a total of 2,425 participants, with many agents taking more than one course.
Norwegian’s Blue Man Group and Celebrity Cruises’ 42Five performed for a vibrant and enthusiastic audience of more than 2,000 at the closing Gala. Cruise3Sixty 2011 will be held April 14-17 in Fort Lauderdale at the Broward County Convention Center at Port Everglades.
